THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Critics of the district's ``community'' schools plan, and the leader of a group created by the School Board last year to make sure none of those schools would be shortchanged, are questioning whether the group will be more of a puppy than an aggressive watchdog.
Beginning next school year, the district will stop busing elementary students for desegregation purposes and implement its community schools plan. To appease those who said all-black elementary schools would be neglected, board members created an oversight committee of city residents that will report directly to them.
The group wants expanded powers of oversight to ensure that no community schools are shortchanged. But the School Board said the committee's main purpose - overseeing allocation of physical resources - is enough.
The 13-member group, said board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III on Friday, will have its hands full in focusing primarily on physical resources centered on maintenance and basic equipment.
Superintendent Richard D. Trumble agrees. ``The greater responsibility to the public . . . belongs to the board and should not be delegated,'' he said.
If that's the case, the group may be ``spinning its wheels,'' said Patricia M. Wright, committee chairwoman and a local attorney. The committee, she said, was ``led to believe its scope was broader.
``What type of assessment can you really do if the main thing you're charged with is looking at bricks and mortar?'' she asked.
``The only way to meet our responsibility to the public is to have the ability to evaluate all measures of school quality,'' such as the caliber of the teaching staff, extracurricular activities, PTA strength, test scores and graduation rates, she said.
``If they're going to fight discrimination, they need to look beyond buildings and whatnot,'' agreed William E. Copeland, a community schools critic whose family brought the first federal lawsuit that led to Portsmouth's school integration.
A similar issue arose in Norfolk, which ended elementary school busing in 1986. Five years later, that district's oversight committee voted to dissolve itself. A key reason it disbanded, said its former leader Joseph Lindsey, was because of its ``limited'' power. Norfolk's board opposed expanding the jurisdiction of its committee.
``We didn't think that only determining things like whether a library had 2,400 volumes was going to make or break a child,'' he said. ``There were other educational issues that also had to be addressed, like the competency of the teacher, the level of parental involvement or even the learning climate.''
In Portsmouth, board member Evelyn Hyman said she disagreed with her board's official position. The committee is ``100 percent right,'' she said.
Hyman, a Norfolk teacher, opposed community schools from the outset and voted against all parts of the plan - including creation of an oversight committee. But, she said, ``as I perceived the oversight committee, it was to disclose any disparity and report same.''
When the board adopted the plan last spring, it said the committee would ``confirm that all available resources - including staffing, equipment and materials - are equitably distributed among the community schools, based upon documented student needs.''
Last August, Trumble submitted proposed ``oversight committee procedures.'' In his proposal was a revised committee ``purpose.'' A week later, the board approved the procedures - which included the committee's new charge. The board didn't publicly discuss the revision.
Trumble has said personnel matters are confidential, and that there's no clear-cut way to determine ``good, better or best'' teachers. The narrower scope is appropriate, he said.
Benn declined to comment on the change.
But even if the board later decides to give the group a broader scope - a move Hyman said she would favor - the district's pinched pocketbook would play a major role, she said.
Portsmouth's operating budget for next school year, which must be approved by City Council, puts on hold all elementary school renovation projects except work being done at S.H. Clarke. Trumble scaled back the money earmarked to bring ``up to par'' three centers - including Clarke - that will be converted to elementary schools.
As a result of the plan, six more elementary schools will become nearly all-black. Several of those will serve the district's neediest kids. At this point, no additional money has been set aside for special programs or extras to address concentrated poverty and the school achievement problems it brings.
``In order to have equity, you have to do something extra,'' Hyman said. ``And, as far as I know, there's no money to do that.'' ILLUSTRATION: EVOLUTION OF A COMMITTEE
March 28, 1994: The School Board said the oversight committee's
main job would be ``to confirm that all available resources -
including staffing, equipment and materials - are equitably
distributed among the community schools, based upon documented
student needs.''
Aug. 25, 1994: Superintendent Richard D. Trumble submitted
proposed ``oversight committee procedures'' to the board. The
proposal had been amended: The committee's main purpose would be to
``confirm the absence of discrimination in the allocation and
distribution of physical resources in the elementary schools -
within the control of the school system - which have a material
bearing on the educational effectiveness of the schools.''
Sept. 1, 1994: The board approved the revised procedures, which
included the committee's new charge.
Jan. 18, 1995: In a regular meeting, the oversight committee
decided to ask the board to extend its purpose to include ``the
absence of discrimination in the allocation of human resources and
all other appropriate resources.''
March 16, 1995: Responding to a March letter from the committee,
board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III gave committee Chairwoman Patricia
M. Wright a letter saying the board wouldn't expand the charge ``at
this time.''
by CNB